
Class. 
Book. 



/U57 



60th Congress, ) HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. J Report 

U Session. \ j No. 2106. 



COMMISSION TO RECOMMEND A DESIGN AND SITE FOR A MONUMENT 
OR MONUMENTAL MEMORIAL TO ABRAHAM LINCOLN, ETC. 



February 10, 1909. — Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the state 

of the Union and ordered to be printed. Lf ■%. (ji. 



"'^fuZ 



Mr. McCall, from the Committee on the Library, submitted the 

following- 

REPORT. 

[To accompany H. J. Res. 254.] 

The Committee on the Library, having had under consideration the 
resolution creating- a commission to recommend a desig-n and site for 
a monument or monumental memorial to Abraham Lincoln, and for 
other purposes (H. J. Res. 254), report that the same ought to pass. 

During the last previous session of Congress the Committee on the 
Library reported a bill to take the tract of about 40 acres of land 
adjoining the north side of the Capitol grounds and to provide for the 
erection of a memorial to Lincoln upon some portion of the same. 
The committee had two purposes in view: tirst, the erection of a me- 
morial to Lincoln, provided it could be done with due regard to artistic 
requirements, upon a site where the great mass of the people could most 
easily see it; and second, to convert an ignominious approach to the Na- 
tional Capitol into an impressive and dignified one. But a controversy 
has arisen over the proposed site and, for the purpose of taking some 
definite step and having the question of the character of the memorial 
and its location considered, the resolution now favorably reported b}^ 
the committee provides for the appointment of a small commission of 
whom a majority are architects of repute. The resolution provides 
that this commission shall serve without compensation and shall report 
to Congress its conclusions upon the questions involved at the next 
session. 

Abraham Lincoln has been dead nearly a half century. There is no 
greater name in the history of our country, or indeed of any country. 
No step has yet been taken to secure a suitable memorial to him in the 
national capital. The committee believes that the hundredth year 
from that in which he was born should not pass by without the taking 
of some direct step, and they therefore recommend the passage of the 
accompanying resolution. 

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